POETRY

holes

there’s a big hole in her middle where a woman used to be
she fills it now bi-weekly with a facsimile
from it came two children, a house, a club-card and a car,
an anniversary edition of what married people are

she can dress it up, schmooze it, flit from guest to guest
explain/expound all aspects, never give her jaw a rest
but it gapes beneath her bosom, it looms behind her smile
tantalizing & tickling oh she’ll fool you for a while

there’s a black hole now between us, a void from coast to coast,
a sub-atomic crater-blasted barbequed weinie roast
of dreams and aspirations, of condo retirement plans,
an idealized culmination of every dream of man’s

a pinhole of the future is twinkling in my mind
elusively it bids me leave my bungied pain behind
sprung forward/pulled back I need closure of the hole
I vaguely can identify as what was once my soul

it took two lawyers, three shrinks and four psychics for me to finally see
there’s a big hole in my middle where a woman used to be

matt landers 04/04